Haji's Domain

[Arion]

Chapter One: Enter the Realm; My Obsession

It wasn’t a pleasant place, Haji’s living quarters that is. His place lied on the side of a cliff, a cave that went into the very cliff itself. It consisted of two rooms. The first one was the one someone would immediately step into upon entering through the door. This one was normal, although small. If one stood at the center of the room and spun in a circle, one would be literally have seen all the sections of his room. Upon first entry, right in front of you, was his bed, which could be called the bedroom. Turn 90 degrees to the right and there is a standing shower with a curtain around it and a small sink next to it, the bathroom. Another 90 degree turn to the right was the exit/entrance and a small chair next to it, the living room. The last turn would place one in front of a small stove, the kitchen. All of these rooms were actually one, it was that confined.

However, there was a door in the back. It wasn’t noticeable and could only be opened by Haji himself. Through that door lied another one, an unpleasant area. This room was much, much larger. Shelves lined the walls and there was a table at the center with tons of papers atop it. In the far end of the room were two beds, though not normal ones. They were more like hospital beds and next to that was some sot of examining board. The air in the room was heavy, perhaps it was due to the blood.

Yes, blood. The board, the beds, even the floor, blood was everywhere here. Most of it was old an dried up, but there were fresh patches. Standing over the board was none other than the chunin himself. He had a knife in his hand, but there was nothing yet on the board. He stood there looking straight ahead, thinking. There was no one there, never was. This was where he practiced all manners of things. Sick and sadistic things that would have him labeled as some sort of psychopath. Maybe he was, but either ways this was his sanctuary.

“I wonder…” He placed the knife on his forearm and made a smooth cut in a circular motion. Digging the knife in a little, he moved it a bit and then pulled up to cut a piece of skin off. He placed the skin atop the board as his arm bleed, adding fresh blood to the floor. Like he cared. His wound however, begun to heal as he poked at the piece of flesh on the board with the knife. His kekkei genkai allowed for fast skin regeneration, so he would often cut off pieces of his skin to conduct experiments on.

“So fragile…” He made a small cut on the skin that laid on the board. It didn’t regenerate, it pretty much couldn’t. Setting the knife down he went for one of the shelves. He took out a flask and walked back to the board. Opening the flask, the fumes spewed up as he gently tipped the flask over. From it poured a green colored liquid, but he only dropped a little of it. The moment the liquid made contact with the skin, nothing happened. The chunin set the flask aside and observed the chunk of skin carefully. After a few minutes, the area where the liquid first made contact begun to turn purple and black, almost like a bruise. Then it begun to spread as the skin in the original spot begun to crack, peel, and bleed. It was like some manner of acid which was eating away at it, though not very potent since it’s effects stopped there.

Taking the flask, he set aside on the board and grabbed a hold of the skin on his forearm. Pulling on it, he outstretched it almost as if made of rubber. He pulled it out until there was about two feet of loose skin dangling from his forearm. At that point, he set his arm on the board and the excess skin outstretched across the board. Taking the flask, he poured a little of the green liquid at the very end of the skin. Setting the flask down, he picked up the knife and waited.

It didn’t have the same effects as when it had landed on the other piece of skin. The biggest difference from the two being that this chunk of skin was still attached to the ninja whereas the other one wasn’t. This meant that this piece was under the influence of Haji’s kekkei genkai. Yes it was. It took several minutes before the effects started to take effect and when they did, they were different. His skin started to bruise slowly and it took several more minutes for it to begin to crack and bleed. As he watched, he didn’t blink nor show any signs of pain, even if the process looked like it should hurt at least some bit. At that point, he took the knife and cut away at the end of the skin that had been covered with the green liquid. Having cut off the exposed part, the chunin was now safe from his experiment and the large chunk of skin missing on his arm would regenerate back to normal soon enough. He left everything on the board as is, blood covering the entire board by now and the floor around it. He walked over to the table and took up a pencil as he begun to write down the observations he had made.

“Initial results are as expected. Potency must be increased, must be tested on a living human, field test highly probable.”

Setting that piece of paper aside, he took out another and begun to write in that one.

“Thinking of commencing another project. I will need to work on my ninjutsu for this one and conduct much research. I will thread lightly for now as this…”

The chunin rose his head and looked out to the door that led back to his room. He closed his notebook and put it inside of the drawer in his desk. Placing his pencil down, he walked to the door and went back into his room. His arm had recovered by now as he sat down on his chair. He simply sat there and looked ahead, not doing anything in specific now. Yup, he was a weird one.

[Arion]

Chapter Two: Reflection; My Torment

It was a rainy day as a young boy stood surrounded by several others. The one at the center was a chubby kid with black hair and pale skin. His name was Haji. This was a memory of when he was younger as he sat in the chair in his room, staring blankly into space. He did this often, think too much. Reflect on his painful fast to remind himself. Remind himself of the pain and to seek ways to hurt others. This was where his sadistic nature stemmed from.

“C’mon fatty!” The kids bullied as they had a young Haji in the middle of the circle. He remained quiet, even as a boy he was quiet. The kids then begun to shove him around. Then it stopped as he opened his mouth to speak.

“Why?” He asked as he looked at them blankly.

“Why!?” They would ask back, mocking him. “Why not!? Look at you!” The boy, possibly the ring leader, grabbed Haji by the arm and pulled him. “Your fat and,” Upon pulling some more, Haji’s skin begun to stretch out. It was pretty gross and after extending it for a bit, the boy let go in disgust. “Your just a fat freak who happens to be the heir of your clan. Your high and mighty because your important, but not with us. Not with the rest of Iwa! You don’t mean shit to us! Your clan isn’t even that important.”

Those hateful words would etch themselves into Haji. Even today he can hear them clearly. No one liked him. They thought he was an arrogant prick whom was only kept around for the sake of the Chikai clan. He was only kept around because Iwa had need of their clan, otherwise, they would have been discarded. Was that really it? He didn’t know, probably still doesn’t. What he does know is that he is surrounded by hate. The hate they have for him and the hate that boils inside him quietly.

“Freak!” They shouted as they all launched themselves at him. Punches and kicks flew at the young Haji as he did nothing to defend himself. He never fought back or insulted them back. He simply remained there and took the beating. He didn’t understand why they hated him and back then he didn’t hate them. No, that came later on. As the days passed, it got worse.

The beatings didn’t stop. It seemed like every week they would gang up on him. Every week he did nothing in his defense other than wonder what he had done wrong. His clan didn’t help him out either. Being the son of the clan leader, he was expected to be strong and fend for his own, so no one ever helped him. He would return home tired, but not bruised. His kekkei genkai didn’t allow his skin to bruise as it would heal almost instantly. So he dragged himself home, even if on the outside he looked fine physically. On the inside, he was breaking.

“Why?” He asked once again as he was surrounded once more. Another beating was waiting and the kids didn’t seem like they wanted to talk, as usual.

“Why….”

A flurry of punches and kicks met the young Haji as he kept asking. Each time he was hit, he would ask and the kids weren’t noticing how his voice was changing. It was getting deeper, rougher, angrier.

“WHY!?”

He broke. Skin shot out from his body like tentacles as he quickly wrapped them around each of the boys. There were many tentacles, the most he had summoned to date. He had pinned down each of them and brought their ringleader in closer.

“WHY!?” He asked angrily as his fiery eyes met with the other boy. The ringleader still wasn’t phased much as he tried to play it off.

“Hey, we’re just joking around. We just want to help you get stronger…” Two things were then heard that made him think twice and made him afraid. A loud, cracking, snapping noise and then a loud scream. Using his tentacles, Haji had just crushed one of the boy’s legs. The ringleader’s eyes widened as he looked back at the screaming and agonizing boy, but Haji, wouldn’t give them a break. They never gave him one. They never let up and so he wasn’t going to give them any mercy either. Another crack, another broken bone, another scream. Soon enough, all the boys had at least one limb broken, one or two passed out from the pain. The ringleader was the last one as Haji’s eyes had remained fixed on him the entire time.

“Why?” He asked one last time. The boy was crying now and shaking.

“I… I’m sorry,” Her cried out, “Please, please don’t hurt me, don’t hurt us anymore. I’m sorry, please…”

No amount of pleading would save him though. This one got it worse than the others as Haji, broke both of his arms and then dropped him to his knees. The boy shouted and screamed in pain as Haji, retracted all of his skin tentacles and stepped up in front of the boy. Looking down at him, he stared right into his eyes and asked him a rather obvious question. It was something he well knew the answer to. Something he wanted to hear because he had gotten used to it, to it’s feeling. So he asked, even though the boy simply looked back up at him teary eyed, angry eyed.

“Do you hate me?”

[Arion]

Chapter Three [Training] - Picking up Something New

“Time to do something different,” Haji told himself as he stepped out the door of his small house. He was intent on doing something, on learning something new, and he knew exactly what he was going to do. He had been reading up on it, sensory style jutsu. With his doton affinity, he planned to make a connection with the earth in order to locate and pinpoint chakras. While he was a taijutsu user, which tend to be offensive, he has some defensive techniques. Adding sensory would add to his supportive role, allowing him and possible comrades to locate the enemy and make advance preparations. That aside, he had his reasons why he wanted this and so set out to train.

Out in the back of his house, he went over what he knew already. He knew the handseals and what he had to do, he simply needed to do it. He got to work quickly, performing the needed handsigns in order to activate the jutsu. When he finished, he slammed his foot on the ground as a means to channel his chakra into the earth and start the technique. He could feel his chakra flowing out, but he didn’t have a good grasp on it just yet. It moved at a decent speed and he covered an area of what he estimated to be around 30 yards. However, having overexerted his chakra, he soon lost control of it and cancelled the technique. With a shake of his head, he tried it once more, exhibiting more control as he did in order to maintain the technique fixated. He was able to hold it a bit longer this time, though it still needed work. It was time for him to move on.

He had it planned. He didn’t have any companions or allies, but needed a chakra source to practice. So he went straight into town, where there were plenty of people around. He picked a spot off on the side as to not interfere with anyone walking by. With that done, he clasped his hands together and begun to focus. He slammed his foot down and channeled his chakra down into the earth itself and then out in all directions around him. This time, it worked, a bit too well. Since it was a crowded place, he was picking up all kinds of chakra. He stopped the jutsu at once and decided it would be best to shift location and he knew where.

The training grounds didn’t get many people, only shinobi. He took a spot far off and begun his technique once more. As he concentrated, he begun to pick up on the jutsu itself, taking note of several things. He realized that he could only feel vibrations on the earth’s surface. With that, he could tell distance, pressure, and some sense of direction. He couldn’t pinpoint the source specifically. He tested what little he had so far and picked one of the chakra sources. It was headed east and judging from the pressure, was a bigger person. This person wasn’t too far, only about 8 yards away. Releasing the technique, Haji looked toward the east and sure enough, there was a big, muscular man there doing squats.

He did the same thing again, absorbing the data of his sensory jutsu to try and locate people around him. He wasn’t as successful the second time around though as was off by both distance and direction. He didn’t stop though as he went at it. He did alright, failing at some points and getting it right at others. This was the point of it all, to develop the technique even further. He need more work, so he came up with a different idea. He left the training grounds and headed towards the playground.

He didn’t come here a lot, or at all, but figured the kiddies running around would be a good help. Watching them as they played, a young boy came up to him with a ball in his hands. He motioned the ball towards Haji as he looked at it and the boy. Things were just falling in place for him now.

“Want me to play?” He asked, the boy nodding his head. “Ok,” Haji replied as he took the ball. He held it in his hands for a moment before offering an idea to the kid. “How about we play hide and seek instead?” The boy stopped to think for a moment and was suddenly off. He went back to a group of kids, chatting amongst them. A few seconds later, he came back with two more.

“Ok, we’ll play. We get to hide though and you have to find us,” Before Haji could reply, they were off to go hide. Of course, that didn’t bother him at all. It was just the type of training he needed for the sensory jutsu. Hoping they didn’t go too far, he started his jutsu and concentrated on finding the children. He picked up one of their chakra pretty quickly, this one was headed west. With the information, he headed in that direction. There were tubed slides there as Haji looked up in them to try and find the boy. He found him climbing up the second tube, one down. Stepping back to the center of the playground, he used his sensor jutsu again to try and locate the other two boys. It took some effort to locate the second boy, but he could tell that he was roughly 20 feet away to his right. In that direction was the jungle gym. He headed there right away and looked around. It didn’t take long to find the boy, he was sitting down in a fetal position, having tucked himself inside a box. Only the last one remained.

This one proved to be hardest as Haji had been used his jutsu a few times today already. Not only that, but he hadn’t mastered it yet, though this exercise was helpful. He was getting better at telling distance and direction and pressure wasn’t too off either. That was it though, he didn’t feel any pressure from the last kid. In fact, the only thing he had to work with was that 5 yards away from him, the boy had been heading north. It was as if he had vanished. He headed towards the location in which he last felt his presence and started to look for him. Though he was the hardest to pinpoint, he was the easiest to spot. He was hanging on the monkey bars. He smiled and figured out why he had trouble. It was because his feet weren’t on the ground. His sensory worked via the earth, so if the opponent wasn’t on the ground, he wouldn’t be able to locate them. He was glad the kid had jumped up on the bars, it helped provide him with that information. He thanked the kids for the game and help and headed home, tired of having used the technique so much and accomplished that he had learned to use it more effectively.